Bass

If the drums are the rhythmic foundation of a song, then the bass is the tonal foundation, upon which all chords are built.

This is not to say that other instruments in the song will never play notes below those of the bass, but the bass has a way of gluing the other elements together, mediating the rhythm and the melody, and telling the song where to go.

Though any melodic instrument can play the role of the bass, I typically like to take one of two approaches to the instrumentation: bass guitar or synth.

I’m usually more prone to go with a bass guitar if the song is heavier, louder, and more rock-influenced.

A bass synth, on the other hand, typically works better with hip-hop, ambient, or even pop.

One of the best tools in which I’ve invested for my bedroom studio is the HX Stomp, Line 6’s stripped down version of the Helix, an all-in-one guitar processor, complete with amplifier, cabinet, microphone, and effects modeling. This device allows me to recreate with extreme precision just about any tone I could possibly want out of my electric bass.

The signal then goes straight to my Focusrite interface, without the need to struggle with bulky amplifiers and cabinets, microphones, extra cables, and unwanted room noise.

I take a similar approach with bass synths, plugging a MIDI controller directly into my computer and playing the bass line on the controller’s keyboard. Logic Pro comes with a ton of software instrument presets, but I usually like to start from scratch and shape the tone of the bass to custom fit the song.